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ORU Engineering team prepares for missions trip to Ghana

By Sara Rozalina Krstevski ('12)

The Oral Roberts University chapter of Engineers with a Mission is partnering with ORU Missions and Outreach for a 2012 summer trip to Ghana. Dan Holman, a mechanical engineering student and the team leader, is excited to practice his gifts while doing missions in Ghana.

"I think it's a perfect combination. We are able to be good stewards of the gift that God gave us because a lot of times people just speak and preach to people and then leave the locals," Holman said. "The locals commit their lives to Christ, but there is no discipling afterwards. Instead of a one-time thing, we want to impact them long-term. The people ask why we do this for them. This opens the door for us to tell them that we are here to serve God, and their hearts are open to evangelism."

The engineering team will be developing and implementing renewable energy with a health clinic in Tamale to provide a sustainable, efficient, low-maintenance and cost-effective power supply to a much-needed local health clinic.

"The plan is to build a health clinic for a woman's vocational school. We help provide services to the locals there and help train the women," Holman said. "We are going to be using solar panels as a renewable energy source. The whole goal is to integrate the physical and spiritual needs of the people."

Robert Leland, ORU engineering and physics professor, believes that this will benefit all parties involved.

"The students benefit in a lot of different ways. From an engineering standpoint, they have to provide an engineering solution in a developed country in different circumstances then they are used to," Leland said. "The students are also learning to use their skills to bless people. It's also a very good cross-cultural experience for them especially as Christians."

Holman is thrilled that the students will be dealing with local professional engineers on how to implement the engineering process and learning to take their field beyond the classroom.

"This really builds up the accreditation of the engineering program here at ORU," he said. "We are able to say that we went to different parts of the world to work with local professional engineers. By having influence worldwide, we are raising up true leaders."